Abstract
Purpose
The uncertainty of forest soil carbon loss influenced by rainfall significantly interferes with the accounting of forest soil carbon cycling. Therefore, it is essential to explore the effects of aggregate fragmentation and inner particle release on the carbon loss of forest soil under rainfall. The objective of this study was to evaluate the responses of the distribution and carbon content of aggregate particles and carbon in runoff sediments under different coverages and rainfall intensities.
Materials and methods
Uneven litter (20% surface exposure) and gauze (complete cover) were laid on the surface of forest soil in a laboratory rainfall simulation system under rainfall intensities of 50 and 80 mm/h. The sediments from runoff were collected during 3 h of rainfall. The aggregate distribution, intra-aggregate particle proportion, organic carbon contents in the sediments and aggregate particles, water retention capacity, and dry bulk density of soil samples under no rainfall and four rainfall treatments were determined.
Results and discussion
The proportion of large macroaggregates (LMs) was reduced by nearly 50% due to rainfall treatments. The residual LM proportion was higher under litter coverage than under gauze coverage (P < 0.05). The proportion of coarse particulate organic matter in the LM (cPOM_LM) decreased due to rainfall and the lowest proportion was 25.44 g kg soil−1 under 50 mm/h intensity with gauze coverage among the four rainfall treatments (P < 0.05). The cPOM_LM also had the lowest carbon content (6.02 g C kg soil−1) under the same rainfall treatment (P < 0.05). The results indicated that the variation in the carbon contents of aggregate particles corresponded to the variation in their proportions. The total carbon contents in the collected runoff sediments exhibited positive correlations with the variations in the cPOM-LM proportion (P < 0.05).
Conclusion
The variations in soil aggregate structure and intra-aggregate particle distribution determine the amount of soil carbon loss. The rainfall fragmented LM into small macroaggregates, which resulted in the loss of cPOM with the runoff sediments at the beginning of the rainfall simulation.
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Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 41775164] Independent Research Topics of State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin (SKL2020TS05), and Outstanding Young Scientific Talents Promotion Project of IWHR (grant number GE0145B062022).
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Yue Feng: conceptualization, methodology, and writing — original draft. Jianzhang Xiao: data curation, formal analysis, and software. Yingqi Wei: visualization and funding acquisition. Hong Cai: methodology and investigation. Jinghua Yu: supervision and resources.
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Feng, Y., Xiao, J., Wei, Y. et al. Large macroaggregate disintegration contributes to cPOM transfer and carbon loss in forest soil under rainfall simulation. J Soils Sediments 23, 777–791 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03348-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03348-z